Photo: An Amazon vine.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a member of the Amazon Vine program and have been since it was launched in October 2007. You have to be invited to join and to qualify for selection you have to be a regular reviewer on Amazon UK. Once you have been invited you submit a list of items you are particularly interested in. This list will form the basis of a personalised individual selection of items.
On the third Thursday of every month at 8.00pm you can either log on to your Amazon Vine account or wait a few minutes for an email (not recommended) when a list of items of which you can select (usually) up to four, assuming you are up to date with your reviews of previous items. The following Thursday at the same time and on offer to every Viner, there is a list of remaining items which were not selected the previous week, of which you can pick up to two, assuming you are up to date, etc, etc. The items for review often arrive on the Saturday of the same week i.e. within 42 hours which is pretty damn good. Those packers must work damned hard.
There is no time limit on how long you can take to write the reviews -I have two DVDs still outstanding from months back- it just limits the number of items you can select. There is absolutely no pressure to write a favourable review. NONE. At all. My rating on Vine reviews range from the minimum 1 star rating (it stinks) to 5 stars (all hail the coming of the messiah).
Amazon also provide a forum for Viners to discuss matters of interest to fellow Viners and I am currently an active participant.
What Amazon does not do is tell you how the system works, though you can email them on an individual basis if you have a problem. Of course the answers may not be consistent.
A few months ago one Viner enquired how unwanted items, after being reviewed, can be disposed of. Apparently giving them to charity shops is okay but nothing else. Then recently I raised the matter of selling them and donating the proceeds to the charity shops as this would raise more money than the peanuts the shop would make. I have taken books from Animal Krackers shelves and sold them through Amazon Marketplace for, even after Amazon's cut and the postage, about three times what the shop would have made.
Amazon's answer was: no. And: no you can't give them to charity shops either. Only the total and utter destruction of the item would be deemed less than unacceptable otherwise you must keep them forever. I may be dramatising a wee bit.
However, since these answer were quoted, both have been removed from the forum by Amazon, as if they can't make up their own minds. My own view is that we should be able to do what we like with them but I can't, not if I want to stay in Vine.
But that's by the by. What happened last night seems to have caused a bit of a stink.
Flashback to a week ago, the third Thursday in the month, the individualised list. As usual most of my list was rubbish (the technical Vine term for books, of which there are always more of than everything else put together and trebled), but also some software (of which I've had enough lately), a couple of DVDs (horror and anime, picked the latter because I already knew the horror was crap), but also a pair of Sennheiser earphones which I grabbed. (Both are reviewed below.)
There was quite a lot of other good stuff (the technical Vine term for expensive electronic/ electrical gear) which I found out about on the forum. Within minutes of every list appearing, there are usually several discussions about what we got/wasn't it crap (i.e. lots of books)/ I got some good stuff (i.e. expensive electrical/ electronic gear)/ etc.
There also seemed to be an influx of newbies on the forum asking the usual questions which were all answered in a kindly and informative manner by older hands such as myself. Amazon clearly had a recruiting drive as, presumably, some people had dropped out.
As usual, we were all waiting with bated breath for the open to all list with the rubbish (i.e. mostly books) that were left over from the previous week. And so it seemed when the list first appeared, then it suddenly changed and we had 5 pages of it. I clicked on to the last page where the good stuff (i.e. expensive... is this joke wearing a bit thin?) usually is. And I was confronted with several sets of Sennheiser ear and headphones, plus really good stuff (i.e. electronic items which cost over a hundred quid) none of which I wanted but I did manage to get a £80.00 rechargeable shaver (useful as my current one is clapped out) and I picked a pair of headphones to use when I watch DVDs on my pc (i.e. every night).
I would imagine the urge to grab the good stuff is a bit like an electronic equivalent of a school of piranhas in a feeding frenzy in that it doesn't last very long but is certainly furious.
What happened is that a few people got caught out. They saw the initial list and grabbed whatever looked vaguely interesting. As I have plenty of books at home I haven't read, I'm very picky when it comes to selecting one from Vine basically because the likely reward (small in terms of pleasure) is outweighed by the time and effort involved in reading and reviewing it.
So people got caught out, missed the good stuff and got lumbered with the rubbish.
Within minutes the forum was crackling with thunder and lightning as, mostly newbies started complaining about being caught. One called us older and wiser hands 'professional reviewers' as if we had an extra advantage. In fact many of us (not me, as already noted) got caught out as well.
But that is, as we said, how it goes. There was a mistake on Amazon's part in not releasing everything at once. But I suppose these things happen, though there are mumblings (not entirely in jest) of a social experiment being conducted by Amazon.
Also, as we experienced Viners keep reminding people, we are getting free stuff. As a fellow Viner pointed out: It's like a lottery that you win every time. Sometimes you might only win a tenner and sometimes a fair bit more, but you always win. Isn't that great? (The question is rhetorical and I agree with the answer.)
But it would help if Amazon were more open and more reasonable. It's not a perfect system but it is the only game in town and the only one you win at every time.
Post Script
I'm currently 683 in the reviewer ranking..
Which reminds me of an interesting fact about Vine reviews. A number of Viners using the forum (including myself) have found that their Vine reviews receive far more unhelpful votes than their non-Vine reviews. These are clearly the efforts of individuals attempt to nobble the 'competition' as if there was some kind of prize for climbing the rankings.
I review because it's fun and it is nice to see people leaving 'helpful' votes as it means I've done something positive. And I do get annoyed at an unhelpful vote when I can't for the life of me see how a particular review could be unhelpful; some I can (Warren Ellis brings out the snarky-sarky in me for some reason).
But a highish ranking means that a number of people have appreciated the work you've put into your reviews and that, in its own way, is satisfying.
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